It’s amazing to me that I’ve been doing Home Sale News for 6 years! I get tons of complements from subscribers and I love that.
Here’s the first issue from June 14, 2001 that I sent out to some friends and family.
At that time I wasn’t a Realtor. My business objective was to sell advertising to Realtors. Realtors, I found out are rather… let’s say… frugal. So, that didn’t work out.
A year and a half after starting, the obvious suddenly hit me, “I keep getting emails and phone calls from subscribers who think I’m a Realtor. I’m not making any money selling advertising. Why don’t I become a Realtor?”
Using Home Sale News to generate business for my Realtor services has worked out much better for me. I still feel, however, there is a breakthrough out there waiting for Home Sale News.
Here is an issue 6 years later, June 14, 2007.
Notice that when you click on the price of the home, you are linked to the Maricopa County Assessor’s page for that home. That early improvement came out of an email exchange with a subscriber. Thanks! Another subscriber suggestion was adding the year built.
In 2006, I added a link to homes listed for sale which subscribers had constantly been asking for.
And a year ago I created this blog Arizona Real Estate Notebook so I could off load a lot of the text from Home Sale News and improve the odds Home Sale News would actually arrive in subscribers’ e-mail boxes.
Spam filters are a constant problem. Home Sale News is often mis-identified as spam because Home Sale News can look similar to mortgage spam to a computerized spam filter.
The sign-up page for Home Sale News http://www.HomeSaleNews.com is in desperate need of a makeover. Right now it looks like it should be in a museum of bad web design.
My top objective now, however, is providing great service to my clients who are buying and selling homes, so the makeover will have to wait.
Nevertheless, Home Sale News is my baby and my baby is 6 years old. One of the great thrills of creating and publishing Home Sale News is when I serendipitously run across a subscriber. I love that! For example, a week ago I promoted an open house in Home Sale News and several subscribers showed up. I loved meeting them! Great fun!
Many Realtors subscribe so it’s a thrill when I meet another Realtor who already knows who I am.
Right now I send out over 57,000 Home Sale News e-newsletters each week to over 16,000 different email addresses. (That means the average subscriber subscribes to 3+ zipcode newsletters.)
THANK YOU TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS!
I REALLY APPRECIATE IT!
Call me when you’re ready to talk to a Realtor you already know well.
John L. Wake
Associate Broker
HomeSmart Real Estate
480-600-0947